1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a control system for controlling consumer apparatus, in particular audio and/or video apparatus. Various such apparatus have been in general use, the control signals thereof being formatted as a bit stream, the bit stream specifying a qualitative operation mode and/or quantitative operation settings.
2. Description of the Related Art
A control system of the kind described is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,816, assigned to the same assignee as the present application, herein incorporated by reference. The general trend in consumer service systems is to integrate an arbitrary selection of consumer apparatuses to function collectively. The interaction may be on a control level in that a first apparatus only controls the function of a second apparatus. Alternatively, the user function also is fulfilled by the combination, for example, in that one apparatus is a broadcast tuner for receiving a particular signal and a second apparatus is a recorder for the signal so received. In general, the various apparatuses in the system may be of various different types, even when fulfilling the same function, and also of various manufacturers. Thus, in principle, each apparatus could require its own particular mode/operation settings that could be expressly non-standard.